It's getting to be my favorite time of year and it was so fun to work on a little Autumn-inspired collection using some different color tones. Christmas is right around the corner too! (weird, huh?) We should be adding personalized Christmas cards & other holiday items to the store within the next 2 weeks.

We're extremely excited to be able to bring Rifle Paper Co. products to our Australian customers more easily. We've partnered up with a distribution company in Australia called Telegram who just debuted our line at the Australian trade show a few weeks ago. I thought I'd share a few photos that they took of their booth with you.

Working with a distributor means that they purchase our products in bulk and import a large quantity into their country at once. This makes it easier for both us and our stores in Australia as it allows the stores that carry us to only pay for shipping within the country rather than having every single order ship overseas. So, in the end, it should allow for for our products to become more readily available in Australia.

I don't know what's in the water down there but we've always seen that Australians have an extreme love for paper.. you guys are some of our best customers! Nathan and I really must visit... it's meant to be :)

you may have seen these floating around (huge thanks to Grace at Design*Sponge for posting these the other day) but here are a few images of our new notepads and 2012 calendars that are now available in the shop!

I'm super excited about these. I've been working to expand our line beyond greeting cards and these are some of the fruits of that labor. We're committed to doing all we can to keep our printing and production in the U.S. and it becomes more and more difficult to source more complicated items.. but so far, with a little effort, it seems to be possible. We also anticipate launching a line of everyday & holiday wrapping sheets soon as well as a line of journals early next year..

We're so thrilled to see how Rifle Paper Co. has continued to grow over these past 2 years (officially 2 years in November!). It's been a TON of hard work but it's also been incredibly rewarding to watch the line grow from our little 1 bedroom apartment to a full-blown operation. It seems we've already grown out of our current studio space so we signed the lease on the building next to us and are currently in the process of combining the two (they're literally drilling a big hole in the wall this week!).

Our office has been a mess for the past few months with boxes everywhere so with this new space I'm determined to find a home for everything and create an incredibly organized operation (we'll see.. I'm naturally a horribly messy person). Our current space will still have our storefront and behind it will be our production area where we box up cards and assemble all of our product by hand, a shipping nook, and storage for all of our cards & products. The new space has a bit of a different layout than our current building. It's set up running parallel to the street with lots of big windows. We'll move most of the desk/work space in there and are building out a meeting room and a closed off office space for myself. I am SUPER excited. I basically live at this office so it feels like I'm planning out my new home :)

Above is my inspiration palette for the new space. I love Roman & Williams interiors/architecture and am trying to bring in the warm industrial look. Contrary to most of our designs, my interior design taste leans more toward simple and masculine with a lot of wood rather than feminine and colorful.. but I also think that helps keep things timeless and fresh. I'm on a tight budget because buildouts get ridiculously pricey extremely fast but I'm having fun scouring the internet for cool finds..

Above: our new light-filled new studio expansion. the wall at the back of the photo connects to our current space & will have an opening with steps. It looks pretty bare but we're supposedly on track to move in in a couple weeks...

sooo, I had no idea it's been almost a month since my last post! ...apparently I've been really busy. well, I've known I've been busy but I guess I didn't realize the extent of it.

above are a few photos of new products that will be available soon.. 2 new 2012 calendars (a larger botanical wall calendar and a smaller fruit calendar). We also have 4 new notepads that will be in the shop sometime in the next few weeks.

we'll also be adding a whole slew of new cards to the store early next week..

I know last year was crazy because I realized that I hadn't shared, or even taken photos of, some of my favorite custom wedding sets that I now designed over a year and a half ago. I started Rifle Paper Co. by designing custom wedding invitations and it's something I absolutely love but while our little company has grown I haven't had as much time to do full custom sets. This set is one of my favorites though so I thought I would finally share it!

The couple got married at the Bowery Hotel in NY. The bride is from NY and her fiancé is from London so the illustration on the front of the invite reflected both locations in the background. The inspiration for the set was the vintage style interior of the Bowery Hotel (one of my favorite hotels) and we also took inspiration from the beautiful Saipua floral arrangements that would be at the wedding (view photos of the couple's actual florals here). The color palette used pastel pinks & greens for the Spring wedding but grounded in blacks & muted tones to add sophistication to the set.

We worked together on the day of pieces as well (escort cards, menu, table numbers, etc.) which was really fun. One of my favorite pieces we did for that was the little wedding program with three pages tied together with Angela Ligouri's Italian cotton ribbon, which I'm obsessed with.

Well, if anyone knows me they know I'm quite a big fan of Anthropologie so I was beyond excited when they asked Nathan & I if we wanted to visit their offices after the stationery show to say hello and have a few meetings. I tried very hard to contain my bursting excitement when we arrived and snapped a few photos to share with you!

Above are a few photos of the Anthro building (the complex in the naval yard has buildings for each brand such as Urban Outfitters, BHLDN, & Free People). I loved big open & bright space. It seemed like such a bustling creative environment with swatches of fabric and color everywhere you looked.

The photos above show the main entrance lobby & table, a view to the open workspace, beautiful terrariums on the front table, an amazing bike from India? that we were told would be sold in a few stores during the holidays, and the exterior of the building.

Nathan and I decided to make a day trip out of our visit so from there we headed 30 min. south to Terrain at Styer's (also owned by Anthro) for shopping and dinner the cafe...

I LOVED Terrain. It was absolutely gorgeous between the outdoor nursery and the greenhouse style shop & cafe. Everything about it was so well done. As poor Nathan can attest I spent way too much time circling the shop a million times looking at everything and trying to pick out a late Mother's Day gift for my mom. The cafe was amazing as well. I especially enjoyed the baked bread in the terra cotta pot with the most delicious lavender honey butter.. yum.

In the photos above... hydrangeas & flowers, entrance sign, furniture gallery building, the inside of the shop, amazing bread baked in terra cotta pots, checking out the card wall (Terrain carries a few Rifle Paper Co. cards!), awesome ketchup label, beautiful items in the shop, and a view of the nursery

photos from the show (top to bottom): our finished booth, new notepads, calendars, coaster sets, one of our new holiday cards with gold foil printing, and photos from setting up (it's a mad house in there until the show opens).. our aisle, my mom painting (mom's are the best), and Nathan & Bethany setting up furniture

Soo, the madness that is the National Stationery Show is finally over. It was actually a lot of fun but I am honestly a little relieved because I went a bit crazy the weeks before the show creating a slew of new designs and products and my mind needs a little creative break. It was a blur of late nights, coffee binges, and all-nighters but I'm so excited for all of the new items we'll have a available soon (some should be in the shop as early as this week).

As for the show itself, it was so fun to be there for the second time. We knew more about what to expect and the nervousness of being there for the first time was gone. It was also so fun to be able to chat with so many people I only know through the internet and some of you awesome readers of this blog. Huge thanks to those of you who were there and said hello!

Above are a few photos from our booth. I just realized that I didn't take as many photos as I thought I did but it gives you a glimpse of our setup and some of our new goods. My approach to our booth design is clean & simple to let the products stand out but I was highly impressed by some other booths who had crazy things like windows and bikes make out of foamcore.

If you have any questions about the show or our new goods feel free to ask in the comments..

these are previews of new products. we expect most items to be available in our online store over the summer.

a snapshot of my office wall during stationery show planning & designing... and oh boy, is it a mess in there..

For those who are unaware, the National Stationery Show is an industry trade show for stationery in New York. It's held once a year and it's primarily for retail buyers to purchase wholesale cards along with press and a platform to debut new goods.

Last year was our debut show (crazy!) and we're very excited to be going back again. I think I've just about doubled our collection and have created the most new products since our debut. I'm so excited to share these previews and there's even more to come. We've added lots of new cards, coaster sets, notepads, new recipe cards and more. I'll be sure to let you know when the items are in our online store which we expect to be sometime this summer.

if you happen to be going to the show please stop by and say hello! We're in booths 3124 & 3126.

"You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach. Then I think you have to develop a kind of resistance to rejection, and to the disappointments that are sure to come your way" -Gregory Peck